Bengaluru: Whose street is it anyway?

The announcement of some events of UnboxingBLR on the Church Street in Bengaluru and closing of the street for vehicles ahead of the event for beautification and repairs has hit the headlines, ruffling some feathers.

The street renovated by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) at a cost of Rs 12 crores has been a model in many aspects, while many stakeholders are unhappy about it. Residents in the area complain of not being able to take out their cars, while cops come and chase street vendors often, who eventually come back.

“The street was well-designed. When we started doing open street events on Church Street on weekends by closing it for vehicles, the area started buzzing with activity, and people started flooding in,” recalls Sathya Sankaran, a mobility activist and a cycling champion,

“Church Street has already been tried and tested; now is the time to go to other areas,” he adds. However, not many areas in the city are willing to try out anything because most areas are already congested and no one wants to do anything. BBMP and other agencies that want to try hawking zones and pedestrian-friendly streets are left with Malleswaram and Gandhi Bazaar.

The Gandhi Bazaar experience

“What happened in Gandhi Bazaar is disastrous. Pedestrian path was tripled, but now four times more vendors have taken up the space. The carriageway cannot carry a single line of vehicles,” says R Rajagopalan, Bengaluru Residents Welfare Association convenor.

Guruprasad Rotti, Heritage Basavanagudi Resident Welfare Association, says citizens have gone to court over issues in the Gandhi Bazaar redesign project.

“The road has become so narrow that ambulances cannot enter, and the bigger fire engine cannot arrive if a fire accident occurs. Public transport has stopped because of the narrower roads, causing issues for all residents. Vehicles are parked haphazardly in front of residences on all abutting roads, causing inconvenience to locals because Gandhi Bazaar has no parking,” he lists problems.

“If a bus passes on the street, it causes 15 minutes of traffic jam,” he says, adding that there is no law enforcement from the BBMP or the traffic police. People on two-wheelers still stand on the road to purchase things, which again causes traffic jams and honking.

An even bigger problem is the vendors taking up more space than before. ”The act says 4’X6’ space must be given to a vendor, but all vendors take much more space than that,” he adds.

However, the BBMP has not designated the street as a hawking zone, and the Street Vending Act, which mandates the space limit for hawkers and regulates everything, has not been implemented. As a result, the vendors remain encroached on the footpaths, leaving no space for pedestrians. Vehicles are often driven and parked on the footpath, which adds to the mess. Shop and restaurant owners in the area complain that the visibility of their outlets is being affected.

“The street vendors directly draw power from electric poles or pay nearby shops to use electricity. This can easily cause a fire hazard if enough care is not taken,” explains Rotti.

“BBMP has told the court they will not change the design; the case is awaiting the judgment,” he adds.

The Malleswaram experience

Eight-ten years ago, citizens and many open street activists met with the commercial shop owners in Malleswaram, seeking to make the 8th open street and have a proper system for street vendors.

The formal shops in the area objected to the plan, saying it could affect their business. They sought proper rehabilitation for the street vendors in the area. Conservancies, alternative roads, etc., were suggested to relocate street vendors.

There was even a market designed on the 9th Cross Road. This was ill-designed, with no ventilation and other facilities, making it a dark and dingy place. However, no street vendors moved into this space, showing they would stay only where they had their customers.

“It stinks of urine, and you can’t even walk through it,” said a Malleswaram citizen, highlighting the design and infrastructure issues in alternative spaces provided for hawking. Many vendors sit right outside this and sell vegetables and other things.

“Of late, there are too many vendors in the area. We agree that local vendors need space, which helps everyone, but these vendors come from everywhere, selling cloths and jewellery. They occupy a part of the road, while the road is also open for vehicles. This creates a huge jam,” says Rekha Chari, President of Malleswaram Swabhimana Initiative (MSI).

MSI has been supporting walkability issues and conducting Cycle Days in association with the Directorate of Urban Land Transport for many years in the area. Malleswaram is also getting a cycle rental initiative and a safe streets-to-school initiative championed by GIZ. This German government organisation has taken this up as a test case to improve mobility and open streets.

Sathyasankaran recalls how the Kadlekai Parishe organised in Malleswaram recently drew huge crowds while giving business to local shops as well—a win-win situation for every stakeholder.

Save public commons for public

“We have very few public commons, and the largest among them are streets. We talk about equity and equality. This is applicable even in public spaces. People come to the big city to eke out a living. They do not have opportunities. Such people should be allowed to use them for their livelihoods. Of course, the bandwidth is limited, but it has to be optimised with proper planning,” says Sathya Sankaran.

“The ability to manage the space is a big problem. There is no systemic way of allowing people to use public spaces. Be it an artist, a vendor or a musician, everyone should be given an opportunity. It should not be limited to only cars,” he says. “Some of them might grow bigger tomorrow, but we are not even giving that chance,” he adds.

The streets should be designed so that everyone has some space. The city has already been built, but it is still possible to repair or redesign. “But every road cannot be for the same purpose. One road can move vehicles, while the parallel road can be used for hawkers. The problem is our obsession with cars,” he says. He adds that a far more denser city like Tokyo has managed to do all these things, though they have narrower roads than us.

“Each area should start planning for their area. It is a bottom-up approach where people reimagine their area. But this also comes from their imagination of what a street is. If they are already stuck on private vehicles, the output will not accommodate other elements; it will not be inclusive,” he says.

“Local area traffic planning needs to happen to control traffic in any area by understanding last-mile connectivity, traffic patterns, parking infrastructure, vehicle density, commercial versus residential ratios and other factors. Every street and junction has to be planned, keeping these in mind,” adds Rajagopalan.

“The rule of law should supersede everything else. We need BMLTA and MPC to put the rule of law in place,” he says.

‘Start forming hawking zones’

“Vendors and others have a right to livelihood on the streets. We only paid lip sympathy to the Street Vending Act but never identified the vending zones and licensing hawkers. This needs to stop, and zoning and licensing must be done soon,” says Ravichandar V, Bengaluru-based civic expert.

He suggests it could start with Church Street. “We need to guard against temporary arrangements becoming permanent. So, rotating licensed hawkers is necessary—otherwise, like our roadside mushrooming places of worship, they will become a permanent feature,” he adds.

“In Bogota, a city of 8 million, on Sundays, about 100 kms of road is shut off for vehicular traffic. About 15-20 per cent of the citizens come and enjoy the streets under the Ciclovia program. This encourages a sense of belonging with the city,” says Ravichandar.

“There is a larger question—what makes a Bengalurean? Is it a selfish, ghetto mentality or a larger community-driven civic mentality?” he asks, adding that a balance is needed between the spaces where the hawkers operate, the right of pedestrians to walk and owners or tenants to access their properties.

People need to learn to co-exist with others in a city. While those who reside on the street, residential or commercial, have a right to easy access in and out of their premises and a right to noise and movement restrictions as per law, they cannot behave as if they own the street, he points out.